Reason to See the World Number 1012

To see how other countries do Television.

Yes, the BBC is infinitely more classy, less sensational when it comes to the news than it's US counterparts. But watch out when you watch the other stuff.

Just last night, while trying to chill out and make myself rest for a bit, I watched a documentary called, "Brother's and Sisters In Love." Fascinating. I've also seen more than I'd like to admit of a night time soap opera called Coronation Street. Bad...but oh, so good. It's the kind of show you can pick up and watch at any point and instantly know what is going on. Next time you are in the UK, check it out. You really can't miss it, cuz it is on almost every night, as a far as I can tell.

Then there are the quiz shows, countless variations. My favorite is the one where normal folks are pitted against celebrities and they compete doing all sorts of crazy stuff....kind of like fear factor, only there are only two contestants and one of them is famous. The episode I saw had Martina Navratilova vying for athletic supremacy against some giggly young jock girl. I stuck it out for one inane stunt where they had to balance on a very large disc, then rotate the disc by running on it without falling off. The person who completed the most rotations of the disc won that particular challenge. Martina did not win. Humiliating.

But my favorite show so far is one that has this real estate agent who picks houses out for people who want to move from the city to the country. She finds out what they are looking for, picks four properties that the people (and the audience) see via a cyber tour, then they choose two to go to personally. We follow them along while they critique and wiegh the pros and cons of each property "privately". Then they sit down with the agent and discuss which house they want to buy. They always say they are gonna make an offer. And then the post-script inevitably tells us, the viewers at home, that the buyer decided not to buy any of the houses we saw. Instead they fell in love with some mystery home, one we did not get introduced to. I do not get it. Where is the satisfaction for the viewer at home. We want to see house and buyer united. I've seen this show something like three times, and never do the buyers buy. Strange. That would never happen in the US.