How bored are you of hearing about The Wire?
Yes, I've seen it and yes, I loved it. But enough already! All you ever see/read/hear is how marvellous US shows are. Well they bloody should be with the amount of money spent on them.
But let's not forget that there are actually some really good British shows around too. I think Law & Order: UK is good (though I prefer the law to the order), EastEnders, though often a bit silly, is really very watchable. That drama Five Minutes From Heaven was good, though a one off, and I've enjoyed series like Doctor Who and Moving Wallpaper. That said there is certainly a lot of crap around, but there are also a lot of crap American shows around too, but we don't see those. We only see the good stuff.
How annoyed would you be as a British writer to find your work constantly dismissed as rubbish, while the world bangs on about how brilliant Mad Men is (and it is), when it gets under 100,000 viewers. What's wrong with people talking and writing about programmes people actually watch?
It's a bit like loving a band until they become famous. It's a snobbishness, an elitism and it's really irritating. I bet Wire fans are furious that it's now on mainstream BBC2, albeit in the dead of night, because it might become accepted by the masses and therefore no longer cool to be associated with. To me, that's the bottom line of all this Wire wanking.
Enjoy by all means, but shut up about it.
